Attribution - Lecture Notes PDF

ATTRIBUTION Attribution Attribution biases  Heider’s theory of naive psychology  Jones and Davis’s theory of correspondent inference  Kelley’s covariation model  Weiner’s attribution theory  Fundamental attribution error  Actor-observer bias  False consensus effect Implications of attribu...

ATTRIBUTION Attribution Attribution biases  Heider’s theory of naive psychology  Jones and Davis’s theory of correspondent inference  Kelley’s covariation model  Weiner’s attribution theory  Fundamental attribution error  Actor-observer bias  False consensus effect Implications of attributions      Intergroup attribution  Ethnocentrism  Ultimate attribution error Reward and punishment Stigma Self-serving bias Hopelessness Illusion of control 1 HEIDER’S THEORY OF NAIVE PSYCHOLOGY  Intuitively constructing causal explanations of human social behavior as like scientific theories Consider that behaviors are motive driven and we look for causal explanations As an attempt to predict and control environment, we look for enduring properties (e.g., personality, abilities) in the explanations Distinguish between 1. personal / dispositional / internal factors and 2. environmental / situational / external factors 2 JONES AND DAVIS’S THEORY OF CORRESPONDENT INFERENCE  Identifies the sources of information that people use to explain a person’s behavior as due to dispositional traits Freely chosen behavior Non-common effects Socially undesirable behavior Hedonic relevance Personalism 3 JONES AND DAVIS’S THEORY OF CORRESPONDENT INFERENCE  Identifies the sources of information that people use to explain a person’s behavior as due to dispositional traits Freely chosen behavior 4 JONES AND DAVIS’S THEORY OF CORRESPONDENT INFERENCE  Identifies the sources of information that people use to explain a person’s behavior as due to dispositional traits Non-common effects 5 JONES AND DAVIS’S THEORY OF CORRESPONDENT INFERENCE  Identifies the sources of information that people use to explain a person’s behavior as due to dispositional traits Socially undesirable behavior 6 JONES AND DAVIS’S THEORY OF CORRESPONDENT INFERENCE  Identifies the sources of information that people use to explain a person’s behavior as due to dispositional traits Hedonic relevance  The actor’s behavioural outcome affects the perceiver to some extent 7 JONES AND DAVIS’S THEORY OF CORRESPONDENT INFERENCE  Identifies the sources of information that people use to explain a person’s behavior as due to dispositional traits Personalism  The actor has an intention to harm or benefit the perceiver  Personalism is more specific than hedonic relevance that the perceiver thinks that the actor has an intention to harm or benefits the perceiver, whereas “hedonic relevance” only indicates that the outcome of the actor’s behavior unknowingly affects the perceiver (or at least it is not directly targeting the perceiver) 8 ATTRIBUTION Attribution Attribution biases  Heider’s theory of naive psychology  Jones and Davis’s theory of correspondent inference  Kelley’s covariation model  Weiner’s attribution theory  Fundamental attribution error  Actor-observer bias  False consensus effect Implications of attributions      Intergroup attribution  Ethnocentrism  Ultimate attribution error Reward and punishment Stigma Self-serving bias Hopelessness Illusion of control 9 HAROLD KELLEY'S COVARIATION MODEL What is responsible for the behavior?  actor / person -- the actor or the source of the behavior  object / entity -- the person or the object / entity the actor is reacting to  situation / occasion -- the time and place in which the behavior takes place COVARIATION between the behavior and the source tells us what source we can attribute the behavior to 10 THE COVARIATION PRINCIPLE Consensus -- do other people also say “Endgame is the best movie.”  HIGH -- others also do the same thing  LOW -- others do NOT do the same thing Distinctiveness – does John also claim another movie is the best movie?  HIGH -- actor does NOT behave the same way towards other objects / entities  LOW -- actor behaves the same towards other things as well Consistency -- does John say “Endgame is the best movie” to different people and at different times?  HIGH -- always the same way across time and place  LOW -- behave differently in different situations 11 Consistency does the actor always behave the same way across different times and situations Consensus do other people do the same thing? Distinctiveness does the actor behave the same way towards other objects / entity? Internal Consistency Consensus Distinctiveness High Low Low Person External High High High Object/ Entity External Low Low High Context CAUSAL INFERENCE FROM SINGLE OBSERVATIONS (KELLEY) Attributing to EITHER disposition of the person OR the demands of the situation is sufficient to explain the behavior Whether the environment inhibits or facilitates the behavior 13 CAUSAL INFERENCE FROM SINGLE OBSERVATIONS (KELLEY) AUGMENTATION principle  when behavior occurs despite situational constraints, we AUGMENT attributions to personal causes 14 CAUSAL INFERENCE FROM SINGLE OBSERVATIONS (KELLEY) DISCOUNTING principle  when behavior occurs in situations which facilitates engagement in such behavior, we DISCOUNT person attributions to that behavior 15 CAUSAL INFERENCE FROM SINGLE OBSERVATIONS (KELLEY) DISCOUNTING principle  when behavior occurs in situations which facilitates engagement in such behavior, we DISCOUNT person attributions to that behavior  Attributions of motivation: Over-justification effect 16 OVER-JUSTIFICATION & INTRINSIC MOTIVATION Lepper & Greene (1974)  Young children like to draw with magic markers  Reward children with “good player award”  Two weeks later, no longer like to draw with magic markers Greene, D., & Lepper, M. R. (1974). How to turn play into work. Psychology Today, 8(4), 49-54. WEINER’S ATTRIBUTION THEORY Locus of control  internal vs external Stability  stable vs unstable Controllability  controllable vs uncontrollable 18 Controllability controllable vs uncontrollable Was the underlying factor controllable? Locus of control internal vs external Controllable Uncontrollable Internal Was it due to External the person (internal) or not (external)? Stability stable vs unstable Unstable Stable Was it a permanent (stable) or ATTRIBUTIONS IN ACADEMIC SETTINGS Stable Unstable Internal Ability Effort External Task Difficulty Luck 20 ATTRIBUTION Attribution Attribution biases  Heider’s theory of naive psychology  Jones and Davis’s theory of correspondent inference  Kelley’s covariation model  Weiner’s attribution theory  Fundamental attribution error  Actor-observer bias  False consensus effect Implications of attributions      Intergroup attribution  Ethnocentrism  Ultimate attribution error Reward and punishment Stigma Self-serving bias Hopelessness Illusion of control 21 IMPLICATIONS OF ATTRIBUTIONS Emotions  angry if the cause is internal and controllable 22 IMPLICATIONS Emotions • pity if the cause is external or uncontrollable 23 IMPLICATIONS Stigma  identifiable condition or feature that makes an individual subject to social rejection  uncontrollable stigma may not lead to rejection (similar to pity) 24 IMPLICATIONS Hopelessness  if attributing failure to (explanatory style) stable, global, & internal causes 25 IMPLICATIONS Self-serving bias  attribute success to internal causes  attribute failure to external or unstable or uncontrollable causes 26 IMPLICATIONS Illusion of control  people assume that they have control but in fact they don't  outcome > chance probability  suggestion of skill, e.g,. competition, choice into chance event will lead to illusion of control 27 IMPLICATIONS Depressive realism  depressed people are more realistic (accurate) in estimating chance event with "skill" cues  non-depressed people usually overestimate degree of control 28 IMPLICATIONS Reward and Punishment  we will reward and punish others  more if the causes are internal and controllable  less if the causes are external and uncontrollable 29 ATTRIBUTION Attribution Attribution biases  Heider’s theory of naive psychology  Jones and Davis’s theory of correspondent inference  Kelley’s covariation model  Weiner’s attribution theory  Fundamental attribution error  Actor-observer bias  False consensus effect Implications of attributions      Intergroup attribution  Ethnocentrism  Ultimate attribution error Reward and punishment Stigma Self-serving bias Hopelessness Illusion of control 30 ATTRIBUTION BIAS Fundamental attribution error  The general tendency to make personality inferences  Overestimate disposition factors as causes of behavior and underestimate situational determinants 31 FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION BIAS Focus of attention  Actor behavior attracts more attention than background situational factors Differential forgetting  Situational causes are forgotten more easily than dispositional causes Cultural and development factors  Western independent self vs. non-western interdependent self Linguistic factors  Easier to describe actor and action in same terms but not situations  e.g., greedy person but not greedy situation 32 ATTRIBUTION BIAS Actor-observer bias  The actor (agent of the behavior) is prone to making situation attributions while the observer is prone to making person / disposition attributions 33 ATTRIBUTION BIAS False consensus effect  The tendency for individuals to overestimate the proportion of people in the population who would think or act the same way they themselves do 34 INTERGROUP ATTRIBUTION Ethnocentrism  belief that one's own group is better than other groups and use our own group as a standard INTERGROUP ATTRIBUTION Ultimate fundamental attribution error  we attribute …  in-group members' …  desirable behaviors to internal, stable factors, and  undesirable behaviors to external, unstable factors  out-group members' …  desirable behaviors to external, unstable factors, and  undesirable behaviors to internal, stable factors 36 ATTRIBUTION Attribution Attribution biases  Heider’s theory of naive psychology  Jones and Davis’s theory of correspondent inference  Kelley’s covariation model  Weiner’s attribution theory  Fundamental attribution error  Actor-observer bias  False consensus effect Implications of attributions      Intergroup attribution  Ethnocentrism  Ultimate attribution error Reward and punishment Stigma Self-serving bias Hopelessness Illusion of control 37